Mike Pompeo Is Insulting Our Intelligence

14 June 2018

Trump also drew criticism for announcing he was ending joint "war games" with South Korea, embracing the frequent North Korean criticism that the exercises are "very provocative". Trumpwrote on Twitter.

"And he also thanked Kim, saying their "day together was historic".

Kim Do-gyun, the South's lead negotiator who is in charge of North Korea policy at the defence ministry, told reporters before departing for the DMZ that he and Ahn would explore ways to ease military tensions and the schedule of a ministerial meeting. "Really, very positive, I think better than anybody could have expected". No details of what those steps would be were given. Bolton has always been an advocate of regime change in Pyongyang, called for the "Libya model" for North Korea's nuclear disarmament, and was a part of the George W Bush administration's decision to walk away from Bill Clinton's Joint Framework Agreement of 1994.

The Trump administration has been adamant that US inspectors must be on the ground, alongside scientists from other countries, to ensure North Korea is following through on its pledge to denuclearize.

Kim is now promising to work toward a denuclearized Korean Peninsula and state media heralded the meeting as victorious, with photos of Kim standing side-by-side with Trump on the world stage splashed across newspapers in Pyongyang.

The praise was among Trump's latest adulation for Kim, a dictator who has directed murders of family members and starved his own people, since the two held a summit in Singapore earlier this week to discuss denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

The UN has previously accused the North Korean regime of "systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations".

Trump also said in a separate tweet that North Korea is "no longer" the US' "biggest and most unsafe problem", telling Americans and the rest of the world they can "sleep well tonight!"

In marked contrast to the recent conciliatory mood, North Korea past year tested its largest-ever nuclear explosive device and launched two ballistic missiles over Japan.

Mr Trump said during the press conference at the end of the summit that "the sanctions will come off when we are sure that the nukes are no longer a factor".

Trump later told a news conference he would end joint U.S.

Later, a Pentagon spokesman said Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was "not surprised" by Trump's concession ending the war games and had been consulted, including discussions with Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

"We are not the enemy of the American people". "My meeting with Chairman Kim was honest, direct and productive".

"I don't know exactly what form that will take, but I'm very confident that by some time in the next week or so we will begin the engagement".

He explained that he had spoken with nuclear experts and believes that when the denuclearization process is "20 percent through", North Korea will be at a point where it "can't go back".

"I think they are one of the great winners today", he said. In 2017, the annual exercise involved 17,500 United States service members, with 3,000 coming from outside South Korea.

"Otto did not die in vain".

Speaking in a wood-paneled office aboard Air Force One, Baier put it to the United States president that Kim was "a killer".

During the summit, Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim signed a joint statement in which the North Korean leader broadly "reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula".

"There are a lot of killers", Trump said. "The world will see a major change".